After reading the wonderful piece ”This is Not a Book Review” by Daniel Pritchard - I’m struck by something that often gets left out of the “Literary Criticism is Dead” debate.
Reviews as they exist in todays media outlets, both in print and online, act primarily as an aid to consumption. The majority of book reviews are meant to encourage people to buy books. On the face of it this isn’t a bad thing. But it’s certainly not what critics are defending when they write op-eds lamenting the decline of the academic book review in the face of the webs proliferation of consumer reviews.
The truth is the literary book review died it’s public death long ago when publishers and newspaper moguls realized they had to appeal to consumers and sell ad space. Fortunately the rise of consumer reviews creates an important place for the academic review that it hasn’t had for years. Sounds crazy right? Here’s why:
-Information has never been more accessible to more people. While the democratization of data makes any voice available to the public it’s also proved that not all voices are created equal. Now more than ever information is judge based on it’s worth. The internet is competitive capitalism at it’s best. And here critics are free from the shackles of editors. No one need approve their content. Online critics walk the high wire without a net in view of the whole world.
-The internet is interactive. What attracts young people to social sites like Goodreads is the participatory nature of their architecture. Now that readers are allowed to interact with criticism, to question it, expound on it, criticism itself is going to have to improve. Discord, argument and curiosity are not just basic elements of intellectual life they’re how the internet functions.
Everyone’s a critic. And now everyone has a megaphone. But what the people want is intelligent, reliable sources of cultural critique. Let’s hope the critics stop wasting their energy on ineffectual griping and start adapting before it’s too late.
